How a select few of "them" are Framing all of "us"

Archive for the tag “war on women”

Rachel Maddow recently discussed the role of framing in the latest controversy surrounding the Blunt-Rubio Amendment, as well as the trans-vaginal ultra-sound initiatives being pushed throughout the country by radical right wing Governors. For those of you who are not familiar, both of these efforts amount to an assault on women and involve using the power of the State and Federal Government to advance a religious ideology at the expense of women’s constitutional rights, not to mention their dignity.

The trans-vaginal ultra-sound legislation being debated in many states is an invasive procedure, some have called “state rape”, since the power of the State will force doctors to use a trans-vaginal probe against the will of women patient’s seeking abortions. A doctor’s refusal to carry out this unnecessary medical procedure is punishable by a fine and jail time.

Whether or not women are subjected to this unnecessary medical procedure is not left up to the patient or the doctor to decide. Instead, Conservative “politicians in Washington” get to decide how woman must behave based on their religious ideology. In this sense, Conservative politicians “know better” than the patient and the doctor, and therefore, “a bureaucrat is getting between you and your doctor.” Sound familiar? Each of the “frames” above has been used repeatedly against Democrats by the GOP in their on-going war on women’s rights and Democracy in this country.

Here’s how it works. The GOP hires manipulative pollsters like Frank Luntz to give them advice on how to craft and then frame their talking points in such a way to manipulate people into supporting their radical agenda, which is based on religious fundamentalism. Francis Schaeffer, a former religious fundamentalist, who helped found the religious right in this country, has publicly stated that there is only 1 political party in the United States, the Democratic Party. The right wing, he claims, is a religious institution. This makes sense when you consider the primary focus of the Republican party, or GOP today.

The modern day GOP is not concerned with the rights and well being of women, workers, immigrants, and especially minorities, and could care less if the average American citizen gets a job. Instead, they are concerned with restricting women’s rights to contraception, which they call “religious freedom”, stripping away worker rights by enacting “Right to work” laws, blaming “illegal immigrants” for stealing jobs that they ship overseas and call “free trade”, disproportionately locking up “welfare recipients” otherwise known as minorities, in addition to other cultural war issues affecting the health and well being of everyone who is not like “them.” They want to live in a world that forces others to adopt a strict adherence to God’s law, as interpreted by the radical Evangelical Christians, of course, who know better! After all, we live in a “Christian nation” don’t you know!!

Interestingly, Rick Santorum and other radical right wing ideologues believe this invasive assault on women’s rights is a “religious freedom” issue. Or do they? As illustrated above, this specific language is an example of a frame. The strategy is not only to craft language that serves to manipulate others into believing what they believe, but the trick is to also “frame” Liberals for actions being committed by Conservatives.

President Obama, for instance, is being framed for imposing his “Obamacare” values on others, making it seem as if he is the one who “knows better”, which is what Rick Santorum has repeatedly done in public by blaming the President for his own actions. In reality, Rick Santorum is the one who believes he “knows better” and is imposing his religious ideology on the rest of us. Oh, and yes, Rick Santorum happens to be an Evangelical Christian.

So, the next time you hear any of these “frames”, remember, they are being used on purpose, and the opposite of what is said in the frame is true. This is why the GOP has earned the reputation for being the George Orwell Party.

Rachel Maddow began last nights show discussing Mitt Romney’s flip-flop on what is becoming the highly controversial Blunt Amendment.

When asked about the amendment being put forth by Blunt and Rubio to allow employers to ban female contraception, Mitt Romney replied, “I’m not for the bill, I’m not going there”, he said in an interview.

Interestingly, when he discovered this particular amendment was part of the Conservatives long-term goal, (discussed below) he quickly released a statement recanting his previous comment, by claiming, “I didn’t understand his question, of course I support the Blunt Amendment.”

The Blunt-Rubio –Amendment would not only allow employers to ban contraception for women, but would also let employers pick and choose what type of health coverage their employees are allowed to receive. As pointed out by Rachel Maddow, “Your boss decides whether or not you get it!”

There are ALL of these reasons, Rachel says, why Republicans should not pick this fight right, which she explains one by one in turn.

– Hypocrisy of Republicans flip-flopping on this issue

– Polling data showing people are against it

– Distraction from what Republicans should be focusing on, jobs!

Rachel says, “They know all these things. Why are they doing it anyway? When they decided to pursue the Blunt amendment in the Senate and lose on it and then keep going on it. Why are they doing that? “What is it that is more advantageous to them in pursuing all of this stuff, then all of its obvious downsides?”

“I think its framing. I think it’s the overall long-term conservative goal of framing anything that Democrats are for as a Government intrusion into your life that you are going to resent.” BINGO!!

She then proceeded to discuss the manipulator himself, Frank Luntz, who advises Republicans what to say and how to say it to convince people to support their radical agenda by framing Democrats for actions the GOP is guilty of committing. Frank Luntz told republicans, “Don’t be against reform, be against a Government take-over of healthcare, be against Government intrusion into your lives.”

As pointed out by Rachel, if the language used in the healthcare debate worked, then why not use this language for birth control too. “Don’t say its about contraception, don’t say its about women at all, say its about a big Government takeover, say its about Government intrusion, say its about Government pushing its way into your space.”

This is EXACTLY what they are doing. For a visual of this framing effort in action, take a look at this MUST SEE clip! Eugene Robinson, political analyst on the program said, “you can’t really claim Government intrusion if your doing the intruding.”